Bush Country
How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals
Insane
By John Podhoretz
St. Martin's Press
HC, 288 pg. US$24.95
ISBN: 0-3123-2472-3
Welcome to Bush country
By Carol Devine-Molin
web posted February 23, 2004
The book "Bush Country: How Dubya Became a Great
President While Driving Liberals Insane" proffers some of the
best analysis on the Bush presidency and the nature of
Democratic "blood sport" (the politics of personal destruction)
that can be found in the literary marketplace. Author and
journalist John Podhoretz has written a very clever, well-
researched and entertaining tome, which explores eight "Crazy
Liberal Ideas" leveled at President Bush. These Leftist allegations
run the gambit from "Bush is a moron," "Bush is a puppet," "Bush
is a fanatic," "Bush is Hitler – Only not as talented," to the attack
du jour that "Bush is a liar."
Unquestionably, Bush "character assassination" has reached an
all-time high during this Democratic primary season by Left-
leaning politicos and ideologues, and their elite media cronies,
who are all in the throes of a massive conniption. This motley
crowd just can't tolerate being out of power – They crave
Democratic control of the White House. It's only now that the
systematic attacks against President Bush are marshalling rebuke
from the Republican camp. In his book, conservative writer John
Podhoretz is clearly helpful to the GOP cause, providing
welcomed rebuttal to some of the bizarre claims being bandied
about by the President's venomous political adversaries.
Podhoretz notes that "The Bush-bashers have grown ever more
alarmist over time, their rhetoric ever more purple, and their
opinion of him ever more contradictory." Is Bush a "moron" or is
he the Machiavellian "liar"? He is being cast as both by the
crazed Left.
Podhoretz begins with the notion of "Energy in the Executive"
that is characteristic of good government as cited in the writings
of Alexander Hamilton. In short, Podhoretz explains that any
president must act "decisively, creatively, and consistently" with
an emphasis on "the protection of the community against foreign
attacks." And Bush has been a shining example of these classic
standards. In the wake of 9/11, Bush boldly eschewed the
ineffective methods of the prior Clinton administration and its
wrong-headed law enforcement approach to terrorism. Out with
the old paradigm of "law enforcement" and in with the new
paradigm of the global "war on terror." Interestingly, the
presumptive Democratic candidate John Kerry appears poised
to return to the antiquated law enforcement model of tackling
terrorism, which failed miserably.
President Bush promptly grasped that the attacks upon NYC
and Washington DC were part and parcel of a global terror war
being waged by radical Islamists and rogue regimes that aided
and abetted them. Podhoretz states that Bush took a
"breathtakingly ambitious posture – one far more ambitious than
anybody, friend or foe, expected. The most notable example of
this was his announcement that we would make no distinction
between the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and those (that)
harbor them." It was also clear that "deterrence" and
"containment" would not work with terrorists and their Islamo-
fascist sponsors such as Iraq, Iran, Syria and Afghanistan.
Moreover, since there exists a "natural terrorist hunger to acquire
WMDs," Saddam Hussein would have loved nothing better than
to provide terrorist surrogates with catastrophic weaponry to use
against mutual enemies, with America, Great Britain and Israel at
the top of the hit-list. All this "combined to make Iraq a new kind
of threat," a unique threat to America and the world at large.
Therefore, bringing down the lawless Iraqi regime "was an
integral part of Bush's war on terrorism," not an adjunct to the
effort and certainly not a "war of choice." In Iraq, the Bush
doctrine of preemption was correctly applied, since America
ousted Saddam Hussein before he could pass on WMDs to his
terrorist cohorts. Podhoretz states: "The world will never know
what kind of threat Saddam Hussein might have posed with a
fully reconstituted WMDs program…That is the gift George
W.Bush has given to the world."
Despite President Bush's failure to win the popular vote, and no
clear mandate, he was still a Reaganite intending to largely
govern as such. Podhoretz underscores Bush's political savvy,
discipline, moral clarity and political courage in the face of
tremendously difficult circumstances. On the homefront,
President Bush succeeded in two significant tax cuts that are
spurring economic growth, and he continues to spearhead the
restructuring and modernizing of the military. Furthermore, Bush
has engaged in a bit of "triangulation," or stealing the issues of the
other party, a strategy popularized by Bill Clinton's former
advisor Dick Morris, and which led to the enactment of: "No
Child Left Behind" legislation (education accountability, with
uniform testing across the nation), Campaign Finance Reform,
additional AIDS Funding (15 billion over the next five years for
AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean), Medicare Reform with a
prescription-drug benefit, and continued stem-cell research only
on those stem-cells already isolated for research.
In foreign affairs, President Bush has presided over two major
military campaigns, in Iraq and Afghanistan, as part of the "war
on terror" to ensure our nation's safety and security. Bush's
initiative to bring some semblance of freedom and democratic
reform to Iraq is pivotal to improving the overall dynamic in the
Middle East. As the author notes, "Bush again thought about
what had previously been considered unthinkable, and he
concluded that the solution to terrorism and militant Islam was
nothing less than freedom…Freedom and democracy are his
answers."
Podhoretz also cites one of the defining moments in Dubya's
young life, when, at the age of 18 at Yale, the university's "rock-
star-famous chaplain" William Sloane Coffin denigrated his father
who just lost a Senate election. Coffin stated, "Oh yes, I know
your father. Frankly, he was beaten by a better man."
Apparently, the young George W. Bush said nothing, but
Barbara Bush stated years later: "You talk about a shattering
blow. Not only to George, but shattering to us." Podhoretz
believes that this incident helped situate "George W. Bush at
odds with the Eastern Establishment," and was instrumental in his
decision to move back to Texas. My sense of it is this: It was
probably a notable episode among other unpleasantness within
these elitist circles. And it demonstrates that Bush was
impeccably raised with good manners and understands the
meaning of restraint.
Carol Devine-Molin is a regular contributor to several online
magazines.
Enter Stage Right -- http://www.enterstageright.com